Issue with SW Duration paint?

pp5150September 2, 2008

I recently had the exterior of my home painted, I paid extra for SW Duration exterior paint. I few weeks later I am seeing some areas that are bubbling, the painter has come back to fix them thankfully, however they keep coming back and some additional ones have also shown up. He is blaming the paint stating that they may be an issue with it, what gives here?? Anyboby else having an issue with SW Duration exterior paint or did he not prep the house properly?? Thanks for any input.

Kind of an "age old saying" here among paint-store people...and KNOWLEDGEABLE painters!!!

"It's rarely the Paint...", especially a high-end line like Duration.
SOMETHING is causing the paint to lift in those random places.
After all...paint isn't made to stick well in some areas, and not in others.

To track down the problem, can you provide some more info.?
* Age of home & your climate area?
* Time since last repaint, and what types/brands have been used?
* Type & condition of siding.
* Wall-thickness and insulation type in home.
* Were any areas repaired b4 painting?
* Was a home-washing done?? If so, how long a dry-time??
* Was siding checked for moisture-transmission by any method??
* Any priming done??

As you can tell, there's a hundred things to investigate b4 "blaming the paint...."!

Also, look at the bubbling areas and try to determine if it is just the Duration bubbling away or is it the layers underneath? The idea is to figure out if it is just the Duration not sticking or is the weight of the Duration pulling at other paint layers that are not adhered.

Interesting. I thought I understood that Duration was "self-priming" or at least I think that's the way SW markets it. Would think that of all the exterior products available right now, a paint marketed as a self-primer would stick to just about any normal exterior paintable substrate -- provided it was properly prepped to accept paint to begin with.

It's not the paint! Of course there are some painters out there that will point to that just to distract the customer from the obvious problem. Improper prep or careless inspection for problem areas prior to painting.

What is the substrate made of? Open one of those bubbles and examine for moisture.

THanks for all of the advice, all good points. I agree that it is not the paint. He did come back the other day to fix some bubbles, lets see if they hold up. To answer some of the questtions asked:

- Home was built in 1970, we purchased it 1 year ago.
- Located in Western, MA
- Clapboard siding was in good shape, some rot around a couple of the window frames, body of house in good shape
- Not sure on wall thickness, house id well insulated with fiberglass.
- No repairs made were made, significant sanding was done, home really needed a paint job, not sure when the last one was completed.
- House was washed, think it dried maybe 4 days?
- Significant priming was done
- No type of moisture test was done, at least nothing was brought to my attention.

I painted my home, rough cedar, with a coat of Duration over latex stain (from 4 yeasr ago) kinda as a maintenence coat. the 12 inch boards will shrink about an 1/8 of an inch in a few spots and I can see the paint stretch but it is not pealing anywhere and I have been very happy so far (only 3 months or so though). I know painting rough cedar is taboo but I am triing to get a longer lasting finish on my home.